It’s impossible to play “Call of Duty: WWII” and not see the influence of Steven Spielberg all over it.

They achieve video game greatness in very different ways, but both owe a great deal not only to history but the fiction we’ve seen about World War II in other mediums. How can a game developer use elements of the true horror and tragedy of war in a way that feels respectful and true but also maintains the threshold of entertainment required when one plunks down $60 for a game? And is it exploitative to make a game that uses elements of the Third Reich or the Holocaust? I’m sure these are questions asked by the teams behind two of the biggest games of 2017: Activision’s “Call of Duty: WWII” and Bethesda’s “Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.” They’re both emotionally resonant games that use imagery that gains power from the men and women who died in the 20 th century’s greatest international conflict. It seems like an even more prominent problem when it comes to video games.

Playing war games, especially those based on real-life conflicts, reminds one of the famous Francois Truffaut theory that “there is no such thing as an anti-war film.” The point was that all war films, even ones that capture the waking nightmare of war, glamorize it simply by virtue of turning it into art.

Wolfenstein 2 vs cod ww2